Switzerland Zurich Rayon Stamp

Will someone please post a picture of a Switzerland Zurich Rayon and
some information about their history and why they are so expensive?

Thank you


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There is more than one, typically called Rayon I, Rayon II, Rayon III per inscriptions. "Rayon" was the category based on weight and distance sent. 2 genuine are shown here:
https://goscf.com/t/65080

History and pics:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local..._Switzerland

These are among the earliest stamps. Like other classics, expensive used is based on being sound, 4 large margins, reasonable cancel. Mint ones are much rarer and have to have full OG to merit a big price. Pen cancels on used drop the price greatly, as does any stamp with less than 4 margins. Faults reduce the price tremendously.

The issues are forged but there are references to detect them. Forgeries are found frequently enough; they are often hard to tell unless you have an original or references. Even then, forgeries can be very convincing. The basic detection method is to compare against the known plate positions (photos exist) and if they match, it's genuine. The exception would be the Sperati forgeries of these which I believe were photographically reproduced from original stamps. Still, there are characteristics there than can separate the Sperati forgeries.

Here is an example I've posted before.



There is a bit of the expert's signature (Sismondo) from the cert over the top of the image. He identified this as position 39 of 40 transfer subjects.

Louise411, here are a few of the Rayon issues from my collection:















The first two are not Rayon but Orts-Post and Poste-Locale which came before the Rayon stamps.

As to why they are so expensive, just the law of supply and demand. Very few stamps from over 150 years ago remain in good condition and lots of collectors want them... As hy-brasil said, these are among the first stamps issued by the Federal Administration in 1850-1852.

Louise411, since you mentioned Zurich were you possibly referring to the Zurich Cantonal issues from 1843 to 1850, Scott numbers 1L1 through 1L5 rather than the Rayon stamps pictured above?

Thank you all very much.